It’s time for the 2010 My TV Honorary Award. This distinction, announced separately from the rest of the winners, is awarded each year to celebrate standout achievement in any given category. Winners aren’t nominated in the regular My TV Awards. Rather, they’re honored separately as the best things that happened in TV all year (whether they be writers, directors, actors, cinematographers, etc…). This year’s winner is a whole series.

This year’s winner is…

Lost

Season 6 was great, it really was. But the reason that Lost is this year’s honorary award winner is the overall contribution it made to the television landscape over its 121 episode run.

In 6 years, ending with the most highly anticipated episode of television in 2010, Lost changed the scope of what network television could do. Shot on location in Hawaii, Lost provided some of the highest production values on TV. Its huge ensemble of talented actors raised the bar for all the others. Its complicated mythology challenged the dumbed-down standards networks had begun to succumb to. And its beautiful and innovative sound and score opened new doors for legions of composers behind Michael Giacchino.

Networks have been scrambling ever since to mimic the success of Lost with high-concept genre shows like Fringe, FlashForward, V and The Event. But nothing will mimic the phenomenon of Lost. And make no mistake, that’s what it was.